Editorial: Cultural atrocities

Monday

Sep 7, 2015 at 2:01 AM

For years to come, humanity will lament that more was not done to protect precious antiquities from the destructive zeal of the Islamic State. On Aug. 30, the extremist group, also known as ISIS, destroyed the main structure of the ancient Temple of Baal, in Palmyra.

The Syrian ruin, on many tourists’ must-see lists, was nearly 2,000 years old. It was considered one of the most important religious buildings of the Roman era by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). A week earlier, ISIS destroyed the nearby Temple of Baalshamin, also in Palmyra.

UNESCO designates World Heritage sites, such as the ancient city of Palmyra, to emphasize their universal cultural value and encourage preservation. Such sites belong to all civilized people, as well as to future generations. Any move to damage them is barbarism, at its crudest and most abhorrent level.

The drive by ISIS to destroy such places is partly ideological: relics of other religions and cultures are viewed as an affront to its rigid version of Islam. In some cases, though, ISIS has plundered rare antiquities for sale on the black market, to finance its military campaigns.

ISIS has sickened the world with its beheadings, rapes and torture, purportedly aimed at establishing what it considers a pure Islamic state. Among its more recent victims was Khalid al-Asaad, 83, a prominent antiquities scholar in Palmyra. He was decapitated and hanged as a warning against idolatry.

Antiquities experts say the scale of cultural losses thus far has been staggering. In the Iraqi city of Hatra, ISIS videotaped its soldiers ruining sculptures with sledgehammers. In Aleppo, an 11th-century minaret was destroyed during clashes with government troops. Fighting has also endangered the Old City of Damascus. Numerous other precious sites and irreplaceable artifacts remain vulnerable.

Some have questioned why Syrian troops seemingly gave up the defense of Palmyra so easily. Possibly, President Bashar al-Assad, who has waged a brutal war against his own people, hopes to force civilized nations to his side, by letting ISIS prove itself the worse of two evils.

Unwilling to help Mr. Assad, the United States and its allies have nevertheless conducted limited bombing campaigns in the region to slow the advance of ISIS. U.S. drone attacks are also playing a part. It may be too late to save Palmyra with air strikes, but other sites might still be protected.

The Islamic State’s cultural atrocities are of a piece with what it has done to human beings, slaying “apostates,” enslaving women and persecuting any in its captured territories who do not fall in line. The West must redouble its efforts to neutralize this nihilistic tide.